Fresh Intelligence: East Coast Braces for Blizzard, U.S. Cries for Bernie, and More

These New York firefighters are just stocking up on salt, but we'll all get a crack at the real thing soon enough.

Good morning and welcome to Fresh Intelligence, our roundup of the stories, ideas, and memes you’ll be talking about today. In this edition we prepare for an icy weekend, a Bernie Sanders music video warms America’s heart, and a cow almost escapes his destiny. Here’s the rundown for Friday, January22.

WEATHERWinter Storm Jonas is almost here! D.C. is set to get the worst of it, with the storm kicking off this afternoon, while New Yorkers can expect snow to appear on Saturday morning and carry on through the weekend. Serious thunderstorms are expected in Mississippi and Louisiana, and a tornado watch is in effect. Be safe everyone! [Weather.com]

FRONTPAGE East Coast Freak-out: Winter Becomes Winterlike The East Coast is rushing to prepare for Winter Storm Jonas: Shelves are stripped in D.C., and across the eastern seaboard hundreds of flights have already been canceled. The D.C. Metro will be suspended for the duration of the storm, but in New York the subway should continue running. Mayor de Blasio said this won’t be like last year, when he found out Governor Cuomo was shutting down the subway from a TV news report. “The lack of coordination was a real problem, and obviously decisions should have been different,” he said. “But this time there’s going to be a lot more communication and coordination.” Speaking of coordination, there’s still time to pick up that case of beer, but you’d better hurry. [Weather.com, NYT]

EARLYANDOFTEN Americans Cry Over Bernie Video, Don’t Know Why New ads from the front-running Democratic candidates have brought their differences into sharp relief. Specifically, Hillary feels she is qualified for the difficult, complex job of running the country, and Bernie — well, Bernie really digs the song “America” by Simon and Garfunkel. He finds it very calming after a long day of shouting about pretty mucheverything.

Iowa Family Dinners Extremely Tense A new poll has both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders heading into the Iowa primaries with commanding leads. The CNN/ORC poll released yesterday shows Trump leading Cruz 37 percent to 26 percent, and Sanders leading Clinton 51 percent to 43 percent. [CNN]

Obama on Flint: Being Forced to Drink Poison Un-AmericanDuring a speech at a reception for mayors at the White House yesterday, the president touched on the growing controversy in Flint, Michigan, saying the situation was unacceptable. He then announced the resignation of the Environmental Protection Agency boss for Flint, and pledged $80 million to Michigan to shore up their water infrastructure. See? That wasn’t so hard. [CNN]

Graham Endorses Random American Who Is Not Trump or CruzAn understandably gloomy Lindsay Graham told reporters yesterday that a nomination for either Trump or Cruz would spell the death of the Republican Party. He compared choosing between the two front-runners to “being shot or poisoned” and instead suggested the country “just pick somebody out of the phone book.” [USA Today]

THESTREET, THEVALLEYWalmart Back to Old SelfJust a day after announcing company-wide raises for millions of employees, the familiar Walmart was back in the news for illegally firing workers who protested in front of its headquarters. The company was also found to have fired employees at 29 stores for unexcused absences after refusing them permission to strike. The retail giant must now host meetings in those stores, reminding workers of their right to strike. [WSJ]

Airline Saves Up All Those Fees, Splurges on PlanesUnited Airlines, one of the worst-rated carriers in America, is updating its fleet with a purchase of 40 new 737s. The purchase affected the company’s earnings report out yesterday, which fell below analysts’ expectations. United still managed to have its most profitable quarter ever, earning $934 million. Remember that next time they’re charging you for a blanket. [CNN]

Google Pays Apple for Right to ExistA lawsuit between Oracle and Google has shined a light on the company’s infamously mysterious finances. Among the big reveals is the news that Google paid Apple more than $1 billion in 2014 to keep its search bar on the iPhone. Yahoo, you never stood a chance. [Bloomberg]

Starbucks Slowdown Blamed on TerroristsStarbucks released its second-quarter profits yesterday and blamed its disappointing international growth in part on the terrorist attack in Paris. Though domestic growth beat forecasts, the company underperformed abroad, especially in the Middle East and Africa. Starbucks recently closed 50 stores temporarily after an outlet in Jakarta was targeted in a terrorist attack. [Bloomberg]

MEDIABUBBLE
Twyla Tharp Ex, Steve Jobs Widow Team Up
Rumors that editor Leon Wieseltier was preparing to buy the The New Republic after Facebook founder Chris Hughes abandoned it were a bit off-base. Wieseltier is instead planning to team up with Laurene Powell Jobs — of Steve Jobs marrying fame — to start a new journal. Tech money will save journalism yet, you’ll see. [Daily Intelligencer]

Fox News Obsessed With Benghazi Movie, TooFox News spent nearly three hours hyping 13 Hours, the new Michael Bay action blockbuster based on the real tragedy in Benghazi. Now Bay just needs to find a Trump tie-in for Transformers 5. [Media Matters]

Millions Clearly Haven’t Seen NarcosRecent boasts by Netflix executives aren’t backed up by the numbers. Adweek released data yesterday from Symphony Advanced Media showing streaming services trail broadcast television by millions of viewers. Oh, but the data counts DVRs, on demand, and broadcast shows watched on streaming services as part of broadcast television. TV, you’re still doomed. [Adweek]

PHOTOOP Queens Moo-rauder Caught Police responded to a cow on the loose in Queens yesterday after the freedom-loving animal reportedly escaped from a nearby halal slaughterhouse. The unnamed cow enjoyed a few moments of freedom along Jamaica Avenue before it was recaptured by police. In a tweet the police announced that all officers were safe, totally misreading ourallegiance.

Yes, you heard right! Cow on the loose-Jamaica Queens.All Officers safe.No injuries.Thank you all for your patience. pic.twitter.com/A1kGV85fUP

MORNINGMEMESometimes They’re Not After You, You’re Just Paranoid (and High)Though it happened a year ago, this great 911 call was only made public yesterday. It really makes you feel like you have your lifetogether.

OTHERLOCALNEWSTip of the Day: Don’t Skimp on the Getaway DriverA burglar in Alaska might have gotten away with robbing two businesses yesterday had he not locked his keys in his car. He was apprehended after he gave his personal information to the taxi company he called to rescue him. [ABC]

Man’s Dying Wish: Anybody But TrumpThe obituary for 65-year-old chiropractor Jeffrey Cohen published in the Pittsburgh Gazette closed with the line, “Jeffrey would ask that in lieu of flowers, please do not vote for Donald Trump.” The number of tributes to Cohen should be huge. [The Wrap]

HAPPENINGTODAY Weather, Possible Signs From Above, Can’t Stop Protesters The annual March for Life anti-abortion rally will go ahead tomorrow as scheduled despite the blizzard set to bear down on it. Thousands of pro-lifers are expected for the march up Capitol Hill. [WaPo]

After 52 years it is time for the United States to fully recognize Israel’s Sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which is of critical strategic and security importance to the State of Israel and Regional Stability!

Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, uses an unofficial online messaging service for official White House business, including with foreign contacts, his lawyer told the House Oversight Committee late last year.

The lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said he was not aware if Mr. Kushner had communicated classified information on the service, WhatsApp, and said that because he took screenshots of the communications and sent them to his official White House account or the National Security Council, his client was not in violation of federal records laws.

In a letter disclosing the information, the Democratic chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee said that he was investigating possible violations of the Presidential Records Act by members of the Trump administration, including Mr. Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump. He accused the White House of stonewalling his committee on information it had requested for months.

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) on Thursday urged President Donald Trump to stop disparaging the late Sen. John McCain, calling the Vietnam war hero “a dear friend” and defending him against the president’s criticisms. …

Ernst’s remarks came during a town hall meeting at a high school in Adel, Iowa, where several attendees voiced anger about Trump’s attacks about McCain. One attendee described McCain as a “genuine war hero” and called Trump’s comments about McCain “cowardly.”

“I do not appreciate his tweets,” Ernst said, when pressed by the attendee why she didn’t previously speak out more forcefully. “John McCain is a dear friend of mine. So, no I don’t agree with President Trump and he does need to stop.”

As we anticipate the end of Mueller, signs of a wind-down:-SCO prosecutors bringing family into the office for visits-Staff carrying out boxes-Manafort sentenced, top prosecutor leaving-office of 16 attys down to 10-DC US Atty stepping up in cases-grand jury not seen in 2mo

For Boeing and other aircraft manufacturers, the practice of charging to upgrade a standard plane can be lucrative. Top airlines around the world must pay handsomely to have the jets they order fitted with customized add-ons.

Sometimes these optional features involve aesthetics or comfort, like premium seating, fancy lighting or extra bathrooms. But other features involve communication, navigation or safety systems, and are more fundamental to the plane’s operations.

Many airlines, especially low-cost carriers like Indonesia’s Lion Air, have opted not to buy them — and regulators don’t require them. Now, in the wake of the two deadly crashes involving the same jet model, Boeing will make one of those safety features standard as part of a fix to get the planes in the air again.

… Boeing’s optional safety features, in part, could have helped the pilots detect any erroneous readings. One of the optional upgrades, the angle of attack indicator, displays the readings of the two sensors. The other, called a disagree light, is activated if those sensors are at odds with one another.

Boeing will soon update the MCAS software, and will also make the disagree light standard on all new 737 Max planes, according to a person familiar with the changes, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they have not been made public. The angle of attack indicator will remain an option that airlines can buy.

Attorneys for New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and more than a dozen other defendants charged in a Florida prostitution sting filed a motion to stop the public release of surveillance videos and other evidence taken by police.

Attorneys filed the motion Wednesday in Palm Beach County court. The State of Florida does not agree with the request, according to the filing.

In the motion, the attorneys asked the court to grant a protective order to safeguard the confidentiality of the materials seized from the Orchids of Asia Day Spa in Jupiter, and “in particular the videos, until further order of the court.”

Two years in, White House aides are dismayed to discover the president likes lobbing pointless, nasty attacks at people like George Conway and John McCain

But the saga has left even White House aides accustomed to a president who bucks convention feeling uncomfortable. While the controversies may have pushed aside some bad news, they also trampled on Trump’s Wednesday visit to an army tank manufacturing plant in swing state Ohio.

“For the most part, most people internally don’t want to touch this with a 10-foot pole,” said one former senior White House official. A current senior White House official said White House aides are making an effort “not to discuss it in polite company.” Another current White House official bemoaned the tawdry distraction. “It does not appear to be a great use of our time to talk about George Conway or dead John McCain. … Why are we doing this?

When Mr. Trump was running for president, he promised to personally stop American companies from shutting down factories and moving plants abroad, warning that he would punish them with public backlash and higher taxes. Many companies scrambled to respond to his Twitter attacks, announcing jobs and investments in the United States — several of which never materialized.

But despite Mr. Trump’s efforts to compel companies to build and hire, they appear to be increasingly prioritizing their balance sheets over political backlash.

“I don’t think there’s as much fear,” said Gene Grabowski, who specializes in crisis communications for the public relations firm Kglobal. “At first it was a shock to the system, but now we’ve all adjusted. We take it in stride, and I think that’s what the business community is doing.”

There’s no specific stipulation that Milo must be heard, so it could be worse

President Trump is expected to issue an executive order Thursday directing federal agencies to tie research and education grants made to colleges and universities to more aggressive enforcement of the First Amendment, according to a draft of the order viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

The order instructs agencies including the Departments of Education, Health and Human Services and Defense to ensure that public educational institutions comply with the First Amendment, and that private institutions live up to their own stated free-speech standards.

The order falls short of what some university officials feared would be more sweeping or specific measures; it doesn’t prescribe any specific penalty that would result in schools losing research or other education grants as a result of specific policies.

Tech companies say that it is easier to identify content related to known foreign terrorist organizations such as ISIS and Al Qaeda because of information-sharing with law enforcement and industry-wide efforts, such as the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism, a group formed by YouTube, Facebook, Microsoft, and Twitter in 2017.

On Monday, for example, YouTube said on its Twitter account that it was harder for the company to stop the video of the shootings in Christchurch than to remove copyrighted content or ISIS-related content because YouTube’s tools for content moderation rely on “reference files to work effectively.” Movie studios and record labels provide reference files in advance and, “many violent extremist groups, like ISIS, use common footage and imagery,” YouTube wrote.

The cycle is self-reinforcing: The companies collect more data on what ISIS content looks like based on law enforcement’s myopic and under-inclusive views, and then this skewed data is fed to surveillance systems, Bloch-Wehba says. Meanwhile, consumers don’t have enough visibility in the process to know whether these tools are proportionate to the threat, whether they filter too much content, or whether they discriminate against certain groups, she says.